Hello from Cincinnati OH, another waste-to-energy guy here!

Post here once you join, and tell us about yourself so we have a clue who we are talking to.
Keep threads short here -- once you have something to say, there's a topic here somplace where it will fit -- and if not, let me know and I will make subforums as necessary. We want all of hard science and tech up here, and if something doesn't fit -- that's my fault and I will fix that for you. See the rules and tips in the parent forum, please.
Forum rules
This sub forum is for new menbers to announce themselves. Try not to create long threads here -- this is just for you to tell us who you are, and for us to say welcome. There are other forums to actually discuss real tech-science things here, and ask questions on. The idea hopefully is to have enough forums and subforums that nothing sci-tech related will be off-topic, there will be a place for it. If I missed something -- let me know, and I'll fix that.

Hello from Cincinnati OH, another waste-to-energy guy here!

Postby mrtorrence » Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:41 pm

Hey everyone,

my name is Cody, just found out about this forum recently and it seems like a fantastic resource. I commend everyone here who is a proponent of sharing information for the good of humanity.

I'm also working on a waste-to-energy project and would love to get people's thoughts on it. We have a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that we've hyper-piliated and disrupted the bacterial colonies' ability to disperse from the biofilm in an effort to make it a more effective strain to use in a microbial fuel cell. Right now we are culturing our bacteria and getting ready to start running wastewater through the system to see what sort of remediation results we'll get. Our plan right now is to start with plain remediation, then move to electricity production, and then to biogas production (hopefully).

Lots and lots of areas we could use help on.. The first bacterial substrates we're going to try are a carbon foam/felt-like material, and a porous biochar substance. So that would be the anode when the system is set up as a circuit/MFC. Cathode material is still up in the air, as is catholyte, buffer, PEM (or lack thereof). Thoughts on any of this? Better place to post this discussion?

Best Regards,
Cody
mrtorrence
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2014 4:48 pm

Re: Hello from Cincinnati OH, another waste-to-energy guy he

Postby Doug Coulter » Mon Sep 01, 2014 3:22 pm

Well, Cody, we're mostly either physicists or engineer/machinists here, with a side of materials research (at present). I myself am somewhat of an inorganic chemist, but my area of expertise is primarily "energetics" which I've been "enjoined" by "the authorities" and my own morals not to cover here...for reasons that ought to be obvious. No one wants the karma of teaching some wack job or teeny-bomber how to hurt innocent people. In my mind, I don't care about the gun stuff - guns have to be wielded to have any effect, and the assumption is that 99.9999999+% of "gun guys" (which I am, myself and know quite a few of) wouldn't kill or even brandish at an innocent. Bombs are too non-specific...

I guess next time I log on as "god" I'll create a chemistry forum with organic and inorganic chemistry sub-forums. probably under Physics (since it's all physics in the end). You can guess, however, that the rules are going to be pretty strict, though that shouldn't hamper any legitimate user here - basically, no discussion of weaponized anything of mass destruction, or instruction on how to do so. I will instruct the board mods to be brutal about that one for our own and others' safety.

And yes, they've been here to discuss things like this with me. Early on, when they discovered a well-off old hippie in the woods, the assumption was that I was running a meth lab, rather than a profitable software/hardware design firm, which was the actual case. We got the full court SWAT press over that, and they thought they hit the big one when they saw my chemistry setup. which is far more exotic and extensive than any illegal drug op. Lucky, I had no precursors for drug manufacture, and told them what I was doing, whereupon they sent in the BATFE instead. We made friends. They've since come back (much more politely) to make sure all is well...those sorts of things are a hot-button topic in the new world we live in with the governments watching everything they can. I've even consulted with them on what books on energetics they ought to leave on the market/internet, since most are so badly incorrect that the bomber types will merely suicide accidentally if they can get a bang at all. Or they'll be easy to ID due to missing parts and acid burns, at least.

So, under those restrictions, I'll make the appropriate forum/sub-forums and that's where this kind of thing can go. Maybe some of our other members can contribute as well, there are some fairly serious materials guys here already. Perhaps we can teach one another good things.

And oh, welcome aboard. It can be a fun ride!

Waste to energy is cool, and just plain remediation is also very cool. We've been crapping in our nest far too much. It seems even the oceans are beginning to notice. It will become a survival issue if it isn't already.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.
User avatar
Doug Coulter
 
Posts: 3515
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:05 pm
Location: Floyd county, VA, USA


Return to Announce yourself

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

cron